On Friday, Anchorage Superior Court Judge Michael Wolverton convicted dentist Seth Lookhart of 46 felonies and misdemeanors. You may recall that Lookhart infamously "performed a dental extraction procedure on a sedated patient while riding a hoverboard" and sent the video to his pals. In 2017, the state filed a suit charging Lookhart with "unlawful dental acts." His sentencing is in April. From CNN:

In at least one conversation, Lookhart joked that performing oral surgery on a hoverboard was a "new standard of care," the lawsuit said, citing phone records.

Lookhart was also charged with medical assistance fraud for billing Medicaid for procedures that were either unnecessary or not properly justified and theft of $25,000 or more by diverting funds from Alaska Dental Arts, among dozens of others.

The evidence indicated Lookhart "believed that he could get away with his fraud indefinitely, and that he believed his scheme was foolproof," Judge Wolverton said, according to the Department of Law's news release. That evidence "was often supported, and often in excruciating detail, by Lookhart's own texts, photos and videos."

Every year in Japan, animals escape from zoos in a planned exercise. Except they aren't really animals, they're humans in animal costumes. And they aren't really escaping, they're part of an annual drill to train staff on what to do when a real animal does. While funny to watch, escaped animals are no joke in a country known for earthquakes.

Director of Tama Zoological Park, Yutaka Fukuda, told Metro in 2015:

‘In the event of a big earthquake, a tree could fall on a cage, or many other things could occur that may lead to an animal escape.

‘We think it is very important, and it is our responsibility to carry it out with seriousness.’

Look for the real lions, their reactions to the drill are priceless.

Thanks, Julie!

screenshot via The Guardian Read the rest

Whenever I have to turn a screw, I turn to this easy-to-find, yellow box of bits.

Flat? Phillips? Torx? Square? Any time I run into a standard-style screw head that needs turning I reach for my drill and add one of these bits. There is a pretty fair assortment, though some repetition, of sizes and shapes in this yellow box.

The metal the bits are made of? Good enough. What I really like? The "tough" plastic case! I dunno how tough canary yellow is, but it is easy to find in my tool bag, or left about the house.

I also have a black box of bits, I can never find them. Yellow it is!

DEWALT DW2166 45-Piece Screwdriving Set with Tough Case via Amazon

Image via Amazon Read the rest

Hand powered drilling tools and machines is a fascinating jaunt through the history of drills, from the dawn of man until the age of electricity. Oddly, it omits Push Drills, which are by far the best type of hand drill for small (less than 1/4") projects in wood and other soft material. Check it out:

If you're just here looking to build houses off the grid or in the zombie apocalypse or after a Trump tweet triggers global nuclear catastrophe, get a decent metal geared drill; the cheap ones are glorified egg whisks. Read the rest

When a bolt or screw is stripped, I drill it out with this extractor set.

When working on old motorcycles, or just my old VW bus, I encounter a lot of stuck screws and bolts. Frequently prior mechanics have left fastners completely rounded off. When these things happen, I grab my drill.

These extractor bits both burnish the stripped head, and then screw into it and extract it. They are not simple to use, and it takes a very steady hand -- something I don't always have -- but slow and patient work generally produces good results.

Speed Out Extractor HSS Broken Bolt and Damaged Screw Extractor via Amazon Read the rest